Sweet Dreams do Die
by Gothica Angel
Summary: Duo leaves the colonies to work on a southern U.S. plantation. What he finds is the place steeped in mystery and horror, and his own shattered past comes to haunt him. It is not associated with, nor does it mention slavery, so don't worry. Please revie
1. Broken Toil

Disclaimer - Gundam Wing and its characters belong to Sunrise Sotsu/Bandai.  
  
Warnings - Kind of gory at one part (nothing too descriptive), cussing, death. An OC (original character, actually 2), but they add to the flavor and, believe me, they aren't self inserts  
  
Author's Random Ranting - I thought this up in English class, and couldn't get it out of my mind. The Maxwell Plantation isn't, as far as I know, a real plantation in southeastern America, but it fit my storyline. I know that so many years from the present there probably won't be plantations, but bear with me. Also, this is a strictly post-Civil War plantation, that has nothing to do with slavery. There are no slaves, I don't accept or tolerate slavery or racism. Any attempt made to flame me about the use of a plantation, will be posted on my website in my soon-to-be flamers book. If you are offended by this in any way, please don't read this story.  
  
Sweet Roses Wither - Prologue  
  
The wind gently dipped the green colored grain in a swirling tango of invisible air. It pushed the windmill by the stream with creaking hinges, and scattered the dandelions at Duo Maxwell's feet. 'Why the Maxwell Plantation? And why didn't Father Maxwell tell me about it before?' Duo shifted the pack on his shoulder as he walked down the road, the hill before him blocking his sight of the plantation house. The small plot of wheat bobbed as though in greeting to him in the wind, and the huge fields of cotton seemed to stretch to kingdom come, and back again. The white brick plantation came into view as Duo came to the crest of the hill in the dusty road, and he could see where the cotton ended, and the water began. Rice paddies bridged the gap between water and land, and Duo's heart sank as he saw her standing on the top step of the house. Gracie Louise Maxwell was an elegant, older woman with her thick gray hair woven into a tight bun atop her head. Father Maxwell's sister strode down the steps to meet Duo. He smiled a relaxed smile at her and said,  
  
"I'm glad I'm made it."  
  
"Thank you, Mr. ... I seem to have forgotten your last name. Call me Lady Maxwell," she looked at the young boy quizically.  
  
"Maxwell. Duo Maxwell," Duo answered, smiling again.   
  
Lady Maxwell smiled and said,  
  
"Well, I'm glad I found the letter my brother wrote not long before his death. In it he mentioned you, and it wasn't until I saw your name on the shuttle departure list from L2 that I remembered that letter."  
  
Duo worked for Lady Maxwell for the remainder of the month of May. He rented a small, one room house on the edge of the fields. Everything fell into place for him, until one humid May afternoon, Duo's past came to southeastern America, and slapped him in the face.  
  
Sweet Roses Wither Ch. 1 - Broken Toil  
  
Duo Maxwell flexed his fingers around the handle of the shovel he had just used to dig the grave with. Lady Maxwell had only been 65, but her heart had failed her. One of the other few farmhands had helped him, nodded curtly, and left. 'Like anyone gives a goddamn about me nowadays,' Duo thought to himself, throwing down the shovel. The young man carried his lunch under the willow tree by the mill pond, and looked into the smooth water. The clouds towered over him as the depths reflected the surrounding area. Duo didn't want to stay anymore. He wanted to leave, to forget all the pain this place had brought him. Forget all the physical labor he had broken over this land. The land was going to be sold any day to pay off outstanding debts, and he'd have only his empty apartment and pictures of Hilde waiting for him on L2. He couldn't go back to L2, couldn't bear to see Hilde with that other man. 'We can still be friends, Duo,' she had said. Duo lowered his body to the cool grass, and propped himself up on his elbows, forgetting about his lunch, and overlooked the massive land. He let his head fall to the ground, and fell asleep with the sun falling over his body.   
  
A sharp pain in his side brought Duo to consciousness. He groaned, and tried to fall into the clutches of subconciousness again, but another blow to his ribs jolted him awake. It was well into the night, and the sun had set long ago.  
  
"Get up, Maxwell. You have a lotta work to do, lazy," someone, the old gardener Mr. Carson, said irritably.  
  
Duo struggled up to a sitting position, and brushed his bangs back out of his eyes. He stood and followed the other man away from from the pond. When they reached the plantation house, Duo realized that he had come this way for nothing. He turned to make the long trek back to his house on the fields, but the gardener stopped him by saying,  
  
"I took the liberty of movin ' your stuff over here, Maxwell."  
  
"Wha?"  
  
"The old lady's will reading was today. Shocked the shit outta her family when she left the whole God forsaken place to you. Big responsibilty for a young kid like yourself, Maxwell. You know, her distant cousins only came to see what piece of the pie they'd get. You're lucky I'm glad that you got it 'stead of them," the old man chuckled before saying, "Now you gotta find someone to rent that shack of yours on the fields. We need more work, and seein' as how you got the money now, you better get your ass some rest, you got a lot of work tomorrow."  
  
Duo stood there, completely stunned as the gardener returned to his cabin. Duo looked up the steps of the dilapidated plantation house. It reminded him of old Lady Maxwell. Elegant centuries ago, it was now a sad shadow that reminded him of his own shattered past. Shaking his head free of the reverie, Duo walked around to the side door of the house after finding the two massive front doors locked. He was tired and didn't care where his stuff was, a look at the clock determined the time was past nine o'clock, so he camped out in a first floor room on a couch. That night, dreams and nightmares twisted together in a whirlwind of chaos and confusion. In the middle, were the two people that were the reason Duo had fled the colonies in favor of Earth.  
  
~begin nightmare~  
  
Hilde walked into the middle of the black room. There seemed to be no walls, but Duo was chained onto something in the dark oblivion. Hilde bit her lip and looked over her shoulder nervously. He tried to talk to her, to shout at her, to ask her why, but he couldn't find his voice. She wrung her hands and said,  
  
"We can still be friends, Duo. We can still be friends, still be friends, still be friends," her voiced echoed.  
  
Heero walked out of the darkness, and put his arms on Hilde's waist. He smirked that 'You know I'll always be better than you' smirk that Duo hated, and said,  
  
"Hilde and I decided we're a little more compatible than you were with her. Glad to see you Duo, goodbye. By the way, Relena sends her regards."  
  
Hilde walked off, and Heero grabbed Duo's shirt, pulling the braided boy closer saying,  
  
"I always finish my missions. Relena was just another mission."  
  
The walls and the invisible floor collapsed along with the chains that held Duo, and he plummetted into the dark crevasse. He hit the ground with a bone jarring crunch and looked around. He was in Relena and Heero's apartment, and red paint was spattered all over the walls and floors. No, it was blood. Duo saw Relena kneeling on the ground, clutching her slit throat. She tried to scream for help, but wavered and fell. Her face was ashen, and in a few moments, she lay still. A wave a nausea overtook Duo, and he scrambled, trying to find his feet. He sprinted toward the door, and when he flung it open, Hilde and Heero stood in the doorway, arms entwined in a passionate, lusty kiss. Heero's hands were red, and Duo screamed, and screamed, and screamed louder still when a dagger was plunged into his back over and over and over...  
  
~end nightmare~  
  
Duo woke drenched in a cold sweat, his hand clutching his heaving chest as he gasped for air. He waited for his heartbeat to return to normal, and looked out the window at the predawn sky. He had left L2 the day after Relena's funeral, and a month before Hilde and Heero's wedding. He still didn't want to stay at the Maxwell Plantation. He didn't want to have to face questions or rumors about his past any longer at this God forsaken place. He was startled out of his musings by the sound of the clock striking. Having no desire to sleep again, he walked to the cabin of Mr. Carson, and slipped a note under the door. On it, he had scribbled something about giving the responsibilty to the old man to find someone to occupy Duo's deserted residance. The rice was still a few months away from being harvested, and the plantation would need help now more than ever.  
  
Later that morning, Duo, with the help of the ever sarcastic Mr. Carson, pried one of the tiny closets in the house open. They found two small shoeboxes, and carried them to the dining oom table. Duo opened one, and found envelope after envelope. He quickly closed the box, and upon seeing his look of mixed despair, Mr. Carson asked,  
  
"What's in 'em?"  
  
"Bills. They're all unpaid bills. Crammed in these damn little shoe boxes is our demise in debt. Why didn't she pay them?"  
  
"Maxwell Plantation don' make enough to pay that debt. She never wanted to admit that her beautiful plantation was fallin' under, but it is. All good things come to an end, Maxwell, an' this good thing has long since ended."  
  
Two days later, they had found a new employee. The afternoon was one of those that the southeast is famous for. Hot and humid, the air barely moved over Duo as he weeded the tiny vegetable plot outside the kitchen. The new worker was scheduled to arrive any minute, and Duo wanted to look like he was doing some work, so that he could make the new person do it. Resting one hand on the handle of the hoe, Duo used the back of his other hand to wipe his forehead. He peered through the shimmering heat waves. He shook his head several times to clear his mind. A figure walked toward the plantation on the old dirt road Duo had walked what seemed like so long ago. As the specter got closer, Duo could see it was no apparition, but a man stirring up the loose dirt. He continued to work, eventually forgetting the walker as he lost sight of him in a deep dip in the road. Duo walked to the shed on the other side of the house to get the wheelbarrow, and when he turned the corner on his return, Mr. Carson stood with the new worker.  
  
"I'd like to introduce you to-" the old man started.  
  
"We know each other," Duo spat.  
  
"You do?"   
  
"Yeah, we do," the other young man answered slowly, "Hello, Duo."  
  
"Hello, Heero."  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
I know! It's short! I'm going to try to make the chapters longer. Please review and tell me if you like it! To all fans who think Heero's OOC, wait for the next parts and see where I'm taking it! Flames will be used to roast marshmallows! 


	2. Trust Betrayed and Burning

Warning - A lot more swearing in this, a lot. A little dark.  
  
Sweet Roses Wither Ch. 2 - Trust Betrayed and Burning  
  
Duo scanned the paper in his hand before stabbing the dry earth with the sickle and embedding it in the dirt so that he could hold the paper with both of his shaking hands. It was a crumpled newspaper section of an L2 obituary. Hilde Schbeiker, 22, had been found dead in her apartment, her throat slit. Hot tears coursed down Duo's face as he continued to read. He saw that her fiance, Heero Yuy, had been missing for over a week, and was presumed dead. The apartment had been overturned, completely demolished. 'Just like Relena's,' Duo thought to himself. He cast a sweeping look over the fields, and his stinging eyes rested on the lean figure of Heero Yuy as he walked toward the windmill to fix one of the arms damaged in a storm that Duo hadn't had time to repair. Heero's eyes were as blank as they were five minutes earlier, when he had seen Duo grab the obituary with Hilde's picture on the top of the column.  
  
Duo retreated to the old willow by the pond for a late lunch. His thinking spot was shaded, and no one bothered him. He sat underneath the waving boughs of the old tree, and watched as they skimmed the water in the unusual May breeze. He wiped away the last of his tears with the back of his wrist. So Hilde was dead. And Heero was supposed to be too. He scooted up against the gnarled trunk of the willow and finished his lunch slowly. A rustling in the leaves above his head half an hour into his meal averted his attention, and he looked up. Heero had perched precariously on on of the willows slim branches. Duo jumped up, and Heero said,  
  
"So you think I killed her?"  
  
"Just like you killed Relena," Duo was shaking again, he wanted nothing to do with Heero.  
  
"Whatever makes you happy," Heero replied simply.  
  
Duo turned and walked away as quickly as he could without breaking into a run. The breeze that had been there minutes before had disappeared, leaving humid, stale air that was almost suffocating in its thickness. He turned up loose dust with every foot tread, and returned to the field where he had planted his sickle firmly in the ground. Pulling it out of the dirt, Duo continued to walk quickly toward the rice paddy, hoping the water might cool him off. The wind coming off the lazy river swirled around Duo in the characteristic pattern preceeding a storm. Duo hacked away at some of the rice, before realizing that harvest was still a month or two away. Throwing the cut stalks back into the shallow water in frustration, Duo waded out of the water, and smoothed his pants down from their rolled up position. He cast a troubled look to the west, where thunder clouds were massing. On the far side of the cotton plot, another storm was massing. Duo snorted in disgust as he saw Heero disappear into the one room house. The time would shortly come when the two men would face each other, no longer as friends, but as two enemies that shared a past.  
  
Duo tossed and turned in his bed that night. Rain coursed down the windows of the house, and thunder rolled over the land. He kept having the same dream over and over. First of the day he broke up with Hilde, and then falling into Heero and Relena's old apartment. He tried counting sheep, but that only reminded him of the days he had spent breaking his back over this land. He tried singing himself to sleep, but that only reminded him of when Hilde sung him to sleep when they had been together. He even tried reading, but that reminded him of the obituary from the L2 newspaper. He finally gave up and went down to his almost empty kitchen. Nothing enticed his appetite, so he just sat at the table, and scanned the rest of the newspaper he had bought while he had gone to town for more supplies. It was an old edition, from a few days ago, and the ink was starting to fade and the paper didn't have the 'hot off the press look' anymore. Duo sighed and tossed the paper aside. Nothing interesting anymore. Duo had found that with the total pacifism policy, there was nothing to do anymore. Nothing to read about. Now that Hilde was gone, there sure as Hell wasn't someone to fight for.   
  
A particularly fierce bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, and was immediately followed by a crash of thunder that shook the table, and the pictures on the walls. The pictures were haunting images painted of the plantation years ago. When it had looked good. Duo realized it probably hadn't looked that way for hundreds of years, and poor old Lady Maxwell had this picture painted so that she wouldn't have to see the crumbling steps and the deteriorating brick. Duo rose from the table and stretched his arms, in doing so cutting his hand on the lamp hanging above the table.  
  
"Shit!" Duo swore softly, bringing his hand down to look at the cut that now oozed dark red blood.   
  
Duo stared at the blood, feeling adrenaline rushing in his veins. He was bleeding. That meant he was alive. He was alive damnit. That scared Duo. He needed to bleed to feel alive, and that couldn't be good. He grabbed a crumpled napkin and pressed it hard against the wound. Blood slowly soaked through the thin paper, and Duo began to relax. He sat back down, and looked out the window at the lightning coursing through the clouds, blazing trails through the sky. Thunder continued to roll out of the clouds, and every so often, the angry clouds would part and reveal a bit of the crescent moon.  
  
'God the moon looks so small from here. Just a few years ago, I could have destroyed it. Damnit I have to stay in the present."  
  
Duo rose again, this time being careful of the lamp hanging precariously above his head, all the while making a mental note to remove it. He flopped down on a couch in one of the rooms, he didn't care enough to pay much attention to what room he now rested in, but that he was now exhausted, and badly needed sleep.   
  
The morning came all too quickly from the time Duo fell asleep. He threw a worn burlap sack over his shoulder and stalked to the vegetable garden where the young plants were soaked with rain water. Duo walked with his thoughts trailing absentmindedly and eyes on the ground. When Duo reached the first row of vegetables, he lifted his head, and froze. Heero was there. He was silently weeding between the long row of onions, and didn't look up. Duo turned on his heel to walk away, until Heero said in his monotonous voice,  
  
"You know we'll never get anything done if you avoid me."  
  
"I'll do as I goddamn please, and hell, I have a reason to avoid you," Duo started to shake again; why was he afraid of this man?  
  
"You're wrong you know."  
  
"What? All of a sudden I can't come or go as I want? Don't forget, I hired you. You're lucky I don't have the fucking guts to fire you. Hell, you'd probably come after me and slit my throat."  
  
"Not about that, and you know it." He finally looked at Duo, "Why don't you just face the fact that I didn't kill them."  
  
"Then why are you here? Your legally dead. How the hell can you be here?"  
  
"You think I wanted to stay on L2? Where the most important woman that was in my life was killed?" Heero's voice rose, "What did you do in my situation, Duo? Hilde was practically dead to you."  
  
"You took her, you bastard, and then you killed her," Duo clenched his hands into a fist and took a step toward Heero.  
  
"Listen to yourself, Duo. Just listen. I didn't take Hilde. You think I took Hilde?"  
  
"I saw with my own eyes! Damn you, I saw it! I even have nightmares!"  
  
"Can you tell dream from reality anymore. Tell me just what you saw, Duo. I think you're going to find it very difficult to separate concious from subconcious."  
  
"That morning Hilde told me she was leaving to be with you. You came with her," Duo's voice shook as he began to recount the ugly scene in Relena's apartment, and when he finished, he glared at Heero and said, "Then I ran out the door, and there were you and Hilde, making out as though there was no tomorrow."  
  
Heero glared back at Duo and said, "Go read the paper, see what really happened. I think you'll find a different account."  
  
Duo dropped his fist to his side in defeat, and knelt in the muddy ground, and then began to pull out the offending weeds with ferocity. They worked in silence, but Duo was now more confused than anything. He shook his head to clear the cobwebs that clouded his mind. Heero looked at him and said,  
  
"What?"  
  
"Nothing," Duo snarled.  
  
Heero shrugged and continued working. He would get through to Duo. He had to. Duo was the only person he had left in his life. Duo continued to pull weeds from the soft earth, avoiding Heero's eyes. He could feel the Prussian blue pools boring holes into the back of his head when he turned his back. Finally, feeling as though he was about to explode, he did,  
  
"What!?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"What do you want? What? Why do you keep staring?"  
  
"I'm not staring."  
  
"Yes you are. Just, God, just talk."  
  
Heero smirked to himself. He said casually, to break the ice a bit, "When do we harvest the rice?"   
  
"Two months. When it's ready, I'll tell you."  
  
"Do you want me to tell you about Hilde?"  
  
"No," For once Duo didn't seem to talk as much.  
  
Duo looked at Heero briefly. Heero seemed hurt very deeply, or in great pain. Duo felt his throat catch, and regret welling inside him for his sharp words. Immediately, the reminder of Heero's heinous deeds shattered the remorse Duo felt, and he ripped a large, thorny weed out of the ground violently.   
  
The afternoon was not as hot as the previous. A cool breeze leaned the cotton stalks, and Duo happily left Heero in the vegetable garden to talk to the manager of the bank that handled the plantation money. The man was dressed in a sufferingly hot suit, and looked like a funeral directer against Duo's light colored clothes. The man spoke almost in a pained voice, and constantly bit his lip. He shuffled his papers together, and leaned forward to face Duo.  
  
"Mr. Maxwell," he began slowly, "You do realize that you are in serious debt?"  
  
"Yes, I do," Duo tried to keep from strangling the man who kept telling him things he knew.  
  
"How do you, expect to pay all of these, accumulating, debts?"  
  
"Well, as you know, Lady Maxwell recently passed away, and we're still attempting to locate some inheritance money she received from her late husband and family. I presume she kept her maiden name when she married, Sir?" Duo said impatiently.  
  
"Yes, a most, unfortunate circumstance. We do have some of the inheritance money in her secret bank account that she used for all her inheritance."   
  
"Use that then!" Duo's voice rose.  
  
"Her inheritance money was specified to be used only for the plantation itself," the man bit his lip again.  
  
"THIS IS FOR THE PLANTATION DAMNIT!!!!!!!!!!!!" Duo yelled slamming a fist on the table around which he, the bank manager Mr. Smith, and old Mr. Carson sat.  
  
For the first time in the conversation, the old man spoke, "For God's sake, Maxwell, keep your voice down. Mr. Smith, these are debts for the plantation right?"  
  
"That is true, and I could work through the red tape to get the money out," Mr. Smith, shuffled through his papers and said, "There should be enough to cover most of these if not all."  
  
"Then do it," Duo replied, a little more calmly.  
  
When the suited man had left, Duo breathed a small sigh of relief. He collapsed on the bed in his room, and let his body relax. When night fell upon the land, Duo slept fitfully until a faint scratching at the bottom of his door interrupted his sleep. He looked at the space between the door and the wooden floorboards. An envelope stuffed full of something was wedged under the door. Duo pulled it out and opened it quickly. They were pictures. Pictures of Hilde. Pictures of Heero. Pictures of Relena. And Pictures of himself. There was a note with it.  
  
'Duo, I thought you might like these pictures from our apartment. Some of the ones of Relena and I are burnt or wrinkled because of the condition that Relena's apartment was in.'  
  
Duo hands began to tremble again, and he took the pictures out to the fields, and burned them. Heero watched from his window, and felt pain catch in his heart. Duo wasn't going to give in that easily.  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
Ya, I know! Cliffie! I really wanted to get this out, and I hope that this is better than the first chapter. I'm going to try to make the future chapters even longer, but thought this lenght to be good for now. Please R&R!!!  
  
~Gothica Angel 


End file.
